Nursery Rhymes!

The Plan

Books

Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker
Mary Had a Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale
1, 2, Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines
Ten In the Bed by Jane Cabrera

Extension Activities

(I have known all of these since childhood, so I don’t have a source.)

Flannelboard: “Hey Diddle Diddle”
Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle / The cow jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such sport / And the dish ran away with the spoon

Flannelboard: “Twinkle Twinkle”
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?

Puppets: “Hey Diddle Diddle”

Puppets: “Hickory Dickory Dock”
Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one, the mouse ran down, hickory dickory dock

Action Rhyme: “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”
One, two, buckle my shoe / Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks / Seven, eight, open the gate
Nine, ten, a big fat hen!

Fingerplay: “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again

Prop Song: “Baa Baa Black Sheep”
Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for the farmer and one for the dame
And one for the little boy who lives down the lane
Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full

Craft

I got the idea for this craft from DLTK and I did modify it a bit (using a spider cut-out instead of an egg carton spider). My families had a lot of fun gluing cotton balls and tissue paper squares on the waterspout — I saw a lot of families singing the rhyme afterwards, so it definitely helped reinforce the theme. (Even though Itsy Bitsy isn’t a classic nursery rhyme, I went with it!)

How It Went

I was thrilled to have this storytime — my community definitely does not have a large grasp of nursery rhymes and being able to introduce them to the kids was a memorable experience. I did a lot of repetition (ie, we read “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe” and then did the rhyme with the motions) and I made sure to also add that repetition helps children learn and that hearing nursery rhymes helps with hearing how words are made and will help when their children begin to read. I think I made a lasting impression because all of our nursery rhyme books were checked out after this storytime. I think the most successful book was “Ten In the Bed” by Jane Cabrera. The one nursery rhyme that the kids knew, prior to storytime, was “Twinkle Twinkle.”